Bryan Costa, NOAA/NOS/NCCOS/CCMA Biogeography Branch, 2009, St. John Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitat Map derived from Acoustic Imagery: NOAA's Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Silver Spring, MD.Online Links:
Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Program, 2009, Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Silver Spring, MD.
This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):
Planar coordinates are encoded using Coordinate Pair
Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000001
Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000001
Planar coordinates are specified in meters
The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.000000.
The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257222.
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
Coordinates defining the features.
| Formal codeset | |
|---|---|
| Codeset Name: | Specific code used for NOAA coral reef habitat maps |
| Codeset Source: | Described in "Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Zitello et al. 2009) |
Area of feature in square meters.
Length of feature perimeter in meters
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
301-713-3028 x146 (voice)
301-713-4384 (FAX)
bryan.costa@noaa.gov
This product provides a fine-scale assessment of the status, abundance, and distribution of moderate-depth marine habitats south of St. John. The NOAA effort provides the U.S. National Park Service with increased technical capacity for ocean exploration, management, and stewardship. Direct implications to management measures include evaluation of management efficacy, a spatial framework for improved monitoring sampling design, improved assessment of human-use impacts, and marine spatial planning to support alternative marine protected area boundary alternatives.
Costa, B.M., L.J. Bauer, T.A. Battista, P.W. Mueller and M.E. Monaco., 2009, Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: NOAA's Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Silver Spring, MD.
Buja, Ken, 2009, NOAA Habitat Digitizer Extension: NOAA's Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Silver Spring, MD.Online Links:
Inc., Space Imaging , 2005, IKONOS Satellite Imagery: Space Imaging Inc., Thornton, CO.Online Links:
- www.spaceimaging.com
3001, Inc., 2007, Orthophotography: 3001, Inc., 401 Dividend Drive, Suite K, Peachtree City, GA 30269.
Process_Date 2005 and 2009
A comprehensive assessment was conducted to evaluate the thematic accuracy of the St. John moderate-depth benthic habitat map. Thematic accuracy was characterized for major and detailed geomorphological structure, major and detailed biological cover, and percent coral cover. An independent accuracy assessment revealed overall map accuracies to be over 95% for major structure and cover classes, and over 88% and 74% for detailed structure and cover classes, respectively.
The 88.7% accuracy achieved for detailed structure in NOAA's moderate-depth benthic habitat map is similar to the accuracies of recent NOAA shallow-water benthic habitat map for St. John (85.7%), as well as for the Florida Keys (86.2%), Palau (90.0%), and the Main Eight Hawaiian Islands (90.0%).
Please see the following document for more information on positional accuracy:
Battista, T. A., and Lazar, J.V. (2005). MBES data acquisition & processing report: Project NF-05-05-USVI, NOAA Data Acquisition & Processing Report, NOS NCCOS CCMA (On-line).
On-line: <http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/products/biogeography/usvi_nps/pdf/NF-05-05_DAPR.pdf>
Delineation of all habitat boundaries was conducted using edge-detection algorithms. The minimum mapping unit (MMU) for identifying habitats or features was 1,000 square meters.
Acoustic imagery was acquired for the southern VICRNM boundaries on two separate missions onboard the NOAA ship, Nancy Foster. The first mission took place from 2/18 to 3/5/2004, and the second mission took place from 2/1 to 2/12/2005. On both missions, seafloor depths between 14 to 55 m were mapped using a RESON SeaBat 8101 ER (240 kHz) MBES sensor (Figure 2.5). This pole-mounted system measured water depths across a 150 degree swath consisting of 101 individual 1.5 degree x 1.5 degree beams. The vessel survey speed was between 5 and 8 knots. In 2004, the ship's location was determined by a Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system, which provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard Continually Operating Reference Station (CORS) at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. Gyro, heave, pitch and roll correctors were acquired using an Ixsea Octans gyrocompass.
In 2005, the ship's positioning and orientation were determined by the Applanix POS/MV 320 V4, which is a GPS aided Inertial Motion Unit (IMU) providing measurements of roll, pitch and heading. The POS/ MV obtained its positions from two dual frequency Trimble Zephyr GPS antennae. An auxiliary Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard CORS at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. For both years, CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) measurements were taken approximately every 4 hours using a Seabird Electronics SBE-19 to correct for changing sound velocities in the water column.
GIS topologic quality was established by executing ArcGIS extension routines that check for: overlapping polygons, multipart polygons, sliver polygons and void polygons. Additionally checks for adjacent polygons with the same habitat attributes were completed. All errors were identified and corrected. This file is believed to be logically consistent.
Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
- Access_Constraints: None
- Use_Constraints: Not for navigation.
301-713-3028 x171 (voice)
301-713-4384 (FAX)
tim.battista@noaa.gov
Downloadable Data
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) is publishing this data on their website. NCCOS Biogeography Branch does not guarantee the accuracy of the geographic features or attributes. Please see the written report and metadata records for each data set for complete information on the source, limitations, and proper use.
| Data format: | shapfile |
|---|---|
| Network links: |
<http://coastalscience.noaa.gov/datasets/ccma/biogeo/benthic_stjohn/StJohn_ModerateDepth_Habitat_Map.zip> |
Contact NOAA for distribution options (see Distributor).
301-713-3028 (voice)
301-713-4384 (FAX)